A STAGGERING four million households in Britain have no income apart from state handouts, it was revealed today.

The number of households with no one on a pay roll hit 3.88 million, a drop of just 0.3 per cent since last year, according to the Office of National Statistics.

The figures will serve to place added pressure on Employment minister Chris Grayling to get Britain's workshy back into employment.

The North East had the highest percentage of workless households, while the number of homes in which no adult has ever worked hit 370,000, up 18,000 from a year earlier.

A total of 1.84 million, 15.8 per cent, of children live under the care of these workshy households.

Employment minister Chris Grayling said: "While the slight fall in the numbers of workless households and children living in workless households is encouraging, these figures still underline the sheer scale of the challenge we face.

Over the last decade thousands of people were simply abandoned to a lifetime on benefits

Employment minister Chris Grayling

"Over the last decade thousands of people were simply abandoned to a lifetime on benefits, and a staggering 1.84 million children are living in homes where currently no one works.

"This is why we launched the Work Programme this summer which will give tailor-made support to help people get off benefits and get into work, while our overhaul of the benefits system will ensure that work is always the best option."

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: "The fact is the government's own economic policies, which have created record female unemployment and harsh cutbacks in childcare support, are likely to mean that the number of workless households will rise again.

"The increase in never-worked households is disappointing, but as over a quarter of these are student houses, who wouldn't be expected to work in any case, it would be wrong to focus too much on a relatively small group.

"The problem of long-term unemployment can only be solved through job creation off the back of sustained economic growth."